Friday, July 29, 2011

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Syllogisms...

I recently heard that a flawed syllogism is that rabbits have whiskers and rabbits are mammals therefore all mammals have whiskers.

Flawed?  Perhaps not as much as I would have wanted to think just a few years back!

You know how when you first begin to shave your legs, it is like a coming of age thing?  You shave everyday.  You would shave more, but the nicks in your legs won't allow for that.   It's cool to be silky smooth.

Of course, over time, you decide that, what the heck, I can go longer than a day.  And then, you decide, what the heck--I wear long pants all winter...

Then, a cool thing happens. 

That hair on the legs begins to thin.  There is not nearly as much and it doesn't grow nearly as fast.

Yeah!!!!!  You breath a sigh of relief.

As you breath a sigh of relief you catch a glimpse of yourself in the bathroom mirror and what is that???? 

What is waving in that little breath?????

You move in closer and Oh DEAR!!!!  That leg hair that you were so happy to have gone is now...

NO!  IT CANNOT BE!!!!

On your face!!!!

Perhaps it is my imagination you think, until one night over dinner in a nice restaurant, your husband stares intently into your face and then says to you, "Are you gonna do something about that mustache."

Now, there's one that the movies and Disney never prepare you for!

So, you decide, well I can take care of you!  You grab the instruments of torture from the medicine cabinet and go to work.

This is okay for a while, but then you notice a new and much more lush growth emerging. 

You head down to Wally World, all the time hoping that no camera carrying peeps are shooting you for the next People Of Wally World episode, slink into the depilatory aisle and--oh thank goodness!!!! 

You find something that will work quickly and it assures that it will make those whiskers, uh hair, thinner each time.  The woman on the package looks hair free and happy, right?  Good enough!  And away you go to rip it all out by the roots! 

Might as well hit it with a scalding hot poker!  Oh my gosh!!!!  You are in the fetal position thinking, "how in the world am I going to deal with the other side?  Will people notice if one side is furry and the other is RED????"

With a will of iron, you zip off the other side thinking that you have won!  The package said you would!  It would thin and go away!

Right?

It didn't warn about the red rash that would develope and the things that look like pimples that last until the next time you have hit the torture chamber again!!!!

Ah hah!  We will go to the beauty salon and get it yanked out by the pros.  They must have the answer, right?  But, after having it yanked out there and a nice, supposedly soothing cream smeared all over and the divestiture of a goodly sum from your wallet, you find that they didn't have the answer either when those pimply things come back again!

After more experimentation and more trips to the store, you come upon the depilatory creme. 

You slather it on your face until you look like Pancho Villa!  Then it makes your lip numb, but the "hair" is gone.  Who cares about a numb lip anyway?   People inject their lips with stuff all the time to make them numb and not move, right?

You wait with bated breath (I looked it up and that IS the correct bated there!  It is NOT baited--k?  I have no idea what you would catch with baited breath?) anyway, you wait with bated breath and no zit like things pop up.

So, short of very expensive, and painful looking electrolysis treatments, this is the current fad in my house...

Mother nature can have a very cruel sense of humor!

It's Raining Dogs...


Dad and I deliver meals on wheels on Thursdays.  There was a couple that we delivered to for a short time.  They had a pug.  I enjoyed meeting their pug who I was told was named Tootie--like the character from Facts of Life.  She was cute and friendly--in other words, very puggy.


One day, we were told that the wife had passed away and the husband was then placed in a nursing home as he was unable to care for himself.  I wondered what would happen to the dog since I had been told by the sister of the woman that she could not keep the pug since her own dog hated other dogs.


I left a note on the door of the apartment with my info letting them know that we have pugs and would be happy to help them out with Tootie.


I heard nothing for a month and assumed they had placed her.  Then, one day, while getting ready to leave for Memorial Day I received a call. 


Man's voice "Do you want the dog?" 


What?


"The dog, do you still want her?"


Who is this?


"You left a note.  I have her.  Do you still want her?"


Oh, Tootie?


"Yes.  Do you want her or not?"


Sure!  Who is this?


He gave me the particulars.  Turns out she was staying with this man who wanted her, but couldn't afford to pay the deposit to keep her.  The family was going to put her to sleep, but he remembered the note, so called.



Our New Pug, Shadow
 We were in Wal-Mart and you have never seen me get out of Wal-Mart so fast!  We went right over and picked her up.  Look at those snaggly teeth!!!!





She lays around with her tongue out a lot of the time.

We bundled her up and took her with us on vacation.  When we returned, she thought Little Blue was her new home.  Everytime she went out, she would run over to Little Blue to try to get into the "House".



She is a sweet girl and after putting the boys in their places when they would not quit sniffing, she has fit right in.
She loves to be on your lap and close to you at all times.  She is a very good girl.

She never responded to the name Tootie with us and since she just followed Gman all around like his little shadow, we renamed her Shadow.  (In this picture, it appears her left eye is bad, but she just woke up and was just opening her eyes).
Now we have 3 pugs and a Tank...




The next dog to rain down was named Patricia.  She was at the local shelter.  My friend Kathy and I were sitting in the Kampground office and she was just browsing Craigs List when she saw this dog that looked just like her Emmy.  She fell in love immediately.  She even called about Patricia.  It turned out she is a Chiweenie (Chihuahua and Daschund) Long story short, Patricia is now named Toni (Kathy likes to own award dogs--Oscar, Emmy and now Toni) and she is a lovely part of their family.  Read Kathy's blog about her here for more pictures and fun...

The third dog to join friends and family is Trooper. 
He came to my brother Tom's home after the death of their Golden Retriever, Ruby earlier. 

Their other dog, chocolate lab Mimi, was alone and feeling the loss of Ruby intensly. 
After a visit to the Shelter, and a second visit so that the dogs could meet, Trooper joined the family.  What a sweet dog he is!!!! 

So, 3 more dogs have great families who love them and their stories are happy ones--and their people's lives are made happier to have them!  I wouldn't trade my shelter dogs for anything!  :)








Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Surprise, Kathy!!!!

Today is Kathy's birthday.  We (the seasonal campers and me, who lives out here for the present) surprised her last Saturday with a birthday get together.

The office usually closes at 8:00 so we met at the office at 7PM to catch her before she locked up and headed for the sack.

Martha and Tom, Sue & My Johnnie, Julie & Patrick, Gman & me along with Kathy and He Who Loves Her Dearly.


My Johnnie put the candles on the cake.  Kathy's favorite is pound cake so there was a cream pound cake aong with an angel food cake, strawberries and the all important Whipped cream!!!!  There was also ice cream and a bottle of sparkling wine.


We sang Happy Birthday and much to the distress of everyone's ears, I even joined in!  LOL

Even at her advanced age, Kathy was able to blow out the candles in one breath, so she will get her wish.

He Who dipped the ice cream for everyone.

Kathy cut the angel food cake!

Everyone piled it high with strawberries, ice cream and whipped cream and washed it down with a bit of the sparkling wine.

(enlarge the picture to see those eyes!!!!) Watch out Patrick she is behind you and with those eyes I wonder what mischief is behind them--Dont' you?   

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Nails--Lemonade & Watermelon...

The weather has be HOT here! 

Yes, we are in that box of intense heat that you see on the nationwide weather.  Heat indices are around 105-110 and they have been for more than 10 days!!!!  Give me a BREAK!!!!!

So, after the 4th of July nails, I decided to go with something for HOT HOT HOT weather on my fingernails and here they are.  I call them Lemonade & Watermelon:

What do you think????


Signs...Kids

I saw this hanging in my auto mechanic's shop here in Missouri:

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

July 4th 2011

The shopping was done, the prizes ready.  The decorations were up and the campground was packed.

It was July 3, 2011--the day of the big July 4th celebration at the Kampground.

The kids started off the day with patriotic kites and paint.

They painted and decorated the kites for a contest in age groups.


They got to show their kites off while "My Johnnie" judged them on their creativity.

This is the older age kids showing off their kites.


Many of the kids had never put a kite together or flown one.

This is the middle age group.

They thought it was great!

They were judged on who could get it the highest in their age groups.

Most of them continued to fly their kites and enjoy the thrill.

This took us to lunch time.

The golf cart parade was going to be at 4:30.  The carts were all decorated and the grand marshalls had arrived.  There were signs to put on each of the grand marshalls carts.

Then, about 3:00 pm, a strong storm front came through.

The sun was blocked out and it looked like 8:00 at night!  The wind came blowing through and mom was in Little Blue resting while we were in the Mother Ship.  The Mother Ship doesn't really do more than shiver slightly (unless hit by a canoe!), but I wondered how mom was doing in Little Blue.

She later told us that Blue was really noisy when the winds came, but didn't rock and knock her out of bed.  Good to know.

The roads in the Kampground turned into a river and the ground, already saturated, became a swamp.

We got the call that the parade was moved to 5:30.

At 5:30 I got the call that the grand marshall's cart was no longer decorated as the decorations had been blown off in the storm.  It was still raining, but we got word that we would be having the cookout and potluck up at the office and on the porch because blue sky could be seen and it was starting to clear.

At this point, my dad (the parade marshall) found out that my brother, niece and her children and nephew and his wife and child were about 30 minutes away and he decided to go to my other brother's house right away so that he and mom could spend time with them at their cookout.

Gman loaded them up and delivered them and their potluck dishes to my brother's house while I headed up to the office for the Kampground cookout.
The prizes were awarded for the kids.
This is the winner of the preschool through k group.  He got a bug collecting kit.  Can you see the frog on the front?  I mean, the Kampground is "all about the frog" you know...

All the kids got those glow in the dark bracelets too.  The parents lined up for those as well...

We all gathered inside to get our goodies.  It was packed with friends new and old and lots of wonderful food!!!!

Everyone was sitting wherever they could and all enjoyed it.


Gman made it back.  He is on the left.  He is talking to Harvey while he is waiting for He Who to cook more burgers and dogs so he could eat. 

Harvey helps He Who with the mowing and odd jobs around the Kampground and lives in a camper here.  He is also a dandy carpenter.  Does wonderful work!!!


This is Patrick.  He's such an angel...See his Halo?

This is Patrick's wife, Julie.  Can you dig the great earrings and necklace???? 



Just in case you missed them on my previous blog, I was also decked out for the holiday!!!!

The weather didn't bother Jeff and Julie who won the site of the month.  They were on their deck (that looks like a dock) that was all festooned with bunting and bows.



One thing that was good, the heat was gone and with the ground nice and wet, it was a perfect evening for the fireworks display.

This year it was accompanied by patriotic music.  I borrowed a set of CD's from my brother which I played on the stereo in my durango.  I popped them in, opened all of the doors and the rear and hit the volume.

I was told that people could even hear the music INSIDE of their campers!!!!

As the first CD was finishing, I thought it would just go back to the beginning. 

All of a sudden, Michael Buble' started belting out Hollywood.  Hey!  He's Canadian!!!!

We got back to American Patriotic music and just enjoyed the rest of the show.
















Gman and I both agreed that it was as good as the ones that they always had in our hometown.

I was impressed!

Happy 4th all...hope you enjoyed the fireworks and day with us!!!

Now to get ready for the Harvest Festival and Chili, Soup and Dessert contest with jack o lanterns, costumes and fun in October!!!!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Mother of Invention Monday (on Tuesday)...Talking to the Mother Ship???

My friend, Kathy and I were up in the "city" to hit the store for something.

As usual, I went the wrong direction at the 4 way stop in town and pulled into a vacant parking area to turn around when we spied something winking across the railroad tracks. 

I stopped and we took a closer look. 

We decided that this deserved a detour on the way home and headed across the track.  We had to wind around the grainary and a few other oddities that didn't excite us enough to stop on the way to our big oddity...

This is what we saw...
It looks like a typical house, right? 

But look more closely...


We noticed that there are floodlights on the porch--in the middle of the day.

Hmmm...

Closer still...


We noted that lined up on the porch are stationary bikes.  Many of them.

And the one on the right has a tube through it with some silver metal things on each side.

Are they making electricity to light the floodlights?

Hmmm...


We drive on and see a pile of flotsom and jetsom which includes bikes and bike wheels????

This person must LOVE bikes...of all sorts!


We went around to the side (front???) of the house and see this...

A bunch more of the metal things in all shapes and sizes.

And more flood lights...

And ladders...

Let's look closer...

Now, normally if I saw ladders like this, I would suspect that the roof was leaking.

This roof looks new and in good shape. 

So what is the deal with the ladders????

Do they have anything to do with the shiny whirligigs???

And look at the shapes of the whirligigs...all kinds and some are on posts.  Metal posts.

See the house number on the porch?  Can you tell what it is made from?


It's a ceiling fan blade!!!!

This person is obviously a recycler...


Next to the house is the garage which has a carport to the side of it.

Out in front of the garage are more of the whirligigs on metal posts.

Then we looked inside the carport...


Look on the ceiling of the carport.

It is literally FULL of metal whirligigs!!!!!

They are hanging from the ceiling, on the walls and all over the floor and everything that is inside.

Then, we noticed...


The giant tower.

With Whirligigs all around the base and we felt we knew the answer at last...

Communicating with Mother Ship!!!!?????